Court ruled Romanian as Moldova’s official language

Court ruled Romanian as Moldova’s official language

The Constitutional Court of Moldova ruled on Thursday that the official language of the country is Romanian.

The Court’s ruling comes after years of division within the society over the name of the spoken language. The dispute was driven by the content of the Constitution which states that the official language of the country is “Moldovan.”

The same institution said that the 1991 Declaration of Independence of Moldova, which stated that Romanian is the official language, prevails over the Constitution. Also the Academy of Science repeatedly emphasized that the so-called “Moldovan” is identical to Romanian.

However, people in Moldova speak the same language as the citizens of Romania do, but only with a specific dialect which is also the case for many regions of Romania.

Moldova was part of Romania until 1940 when Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact divided Europe in two zones. Russia annexed Moldova – the Eastern part of Romania -, known also as Bessarabia.

During the Soviet period the people were told they speak Moldovan, not Romanian. The Latin-script used in Moldova before then was replaced by the Cyrillic-script.

President of Romania Traian Basescu said that the ruling was “an act of justice regarding the history of the citizens of Moldova.”

“We will be two states in the European Union with Romanian as official language,” Mr. Basescu stated in a press conference on Thursday.

Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta also welcomed the ruling, saying that it will unite the two countries within the European Union.

“We speak the same language, we feel with the same soul; therefore our destinations should be mutual within the European Union,” Victor Ponta said.